Friday, July 7, 2023

“The Science of Stress and How Our Emotions Affect Our Susceptibility to Burnout and Disease”

“The Science of Stress and How Our Emotions
Affect Our Susceptibility to Burnout and Disease
by Maria Popova

"I had lived thirty good years before enduring my first food poisoning - odds quite fortunate in the grand scheme of things, but miserably unfortunate in the immediate experience of it. I found myself completely incapacitated to erect the pillars of my daily life - too cognitively foggy to read and write, too physically weak to work out or even meditate. The temporary disability soon elevated the assault on my mind and body to a new height of anguish: an intense experience of stress. Even as I consoled myself with Nabokov’s exceptionally florid account of food poisoning, I couldn’t shake the overwhelming malaise that had engulfed me - somehow, a physical illness had completely colored my psychoemotional reality.

This experience, of course, is far from uncommon. Long before scientists began shedding light on how our minds and bodies actually affect one another, an intuitive understanding of this dialogue between the body and the emotions, or feelings, emerged and permeated our very language: We use “feeling sick” as a grab-bag term for both the sensory symptoms - fever, fatigue, nausea - and the psychological malaise, woven of emotions like sadness and apathy.

Pre-modern medicine, in fact, has recognized this link between disease and emotion for millennia. Ancient Greek, Roman, and Indian Ayurvedic physicians all enlisted the theory of the four humors - blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm - in their healing practices, believing that imbalances in these four visible secretions of the body caused disease and were themselves often caused by the emotions. These beliefs are fossilized in our present language - melancholy comes from the Latin words for “black” (melan) and “bitter bile” (choler), and we think of a melancholic person as gloomy or embittered; a phlegmatic person is languid and impassive, for phlegm makes one lethargic.

And then French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes came along in the seventeenth century, taking it upon himself to eradicate the superstitions that fueled the religious wars of the era by planting the seed of rationalism. But the very tenets that laid the foundation of modern science - the idea that truth comes only from what can be visibly ascertained and proven beyond doubt - severed this link between the physical body and the emotions; those mysterious and fleeting forces, the biological basis of which the tools of modern neuroscience are only just beginning to understand, seemed to exist entirely outside the realm of what could be examined with the tools of rationalism.

For nearly three centuries, the idea that our emotions could impact our physical health remained scientific taboo - setting out to fight one type of dogma, Descartes had inadvertently created another, which we’re only just beginning to shake off. It was only in the 1950s that Austrian-Canadian physician and physiologist Hans Selye pioneered the notion of stress as we now know it today, drawing the scientific community’s attention to the effects of stress on physical health and popularizing the concept around the world. (In addition to his scientific dedication, Selye also understood the branding component of any successful movement and worked tirelessly to include the word itself in dictionaries around the world; today, “stress” is perhaps the word pronounced most similarly in the greatest number of major languages.)

But no researcher has done more to illuminate the invisible threads that weave mind and body together than Dr. Esther Sternberg. Her groundbreaking work on the link between the central nervous system and the immune system, exploring how immune molecules made in the blood can trigger brain function that profoundly affects our emotions, has revolutionized our understanding of the integrated being we call a human self. In the immeasurably revelatory "The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions" (public library), Sternberg examines the interplay of our emotions and our physical health, mediated by that seemingly nebulous yet, it turns out, remarkably concrete experience called stress.

With an eye to modern medicine’s advances in cellular and molecular biology, which have made it possible to measure how our nervous system and our hormones affect our susceptibility to diseases as varied as depression, arthritis, AIDS, and chronic fatigue syndrome, Sternberg writes: "By parsing these chemical intermediaries, we can begin to understand the biological underpinnings of how emotions affect diseases… The same parts of the brain that control the stress response play an important role in susceptibility and resistance to inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. And since it is these parts of the brain that also play a role in depression, we can begin to understand why it is that many patients with inflammatory diseases may also experience depression at different times in their lives.

Rather than seeing the psyche as the source of such illnesses, we are discovering that while feelings don’t directly cause or cure disease, the biological mechanisms underlying them may cause or contribute to disease. Thus, many of the nerve pathways and molecules underlying both psychological responses and inflammatory disease are the same, making predisposition to one set of illnesses likely to go along with predisposition to the other. The questions need to be rephrased, therefore, to ask which of the many components that work together to create emotions also affect that other constellation of biological events, immune responses, which come together to fight or to cause disease. Rather than asking if depressing thoughts can cause an illness of the body, we need to ask what the molecules and nerve pathways are that cause depressing thoughts. And then we need to ask whether these affect the cells and molecules that cause disease.

We are even beginning to sort out how emotional memories reach the parts of the brain that control the hormonal stress response, and how such emotions can ultimately affect the workings of the immune system and thus affect illnesses as disparate as arthritis and cancer. We are also beginning to piece together how signals from the immune system can affect the brain and the emotional and physical responses it controls: the molecular basis of feeling sick. In all this, the boundaries between mind and body are beginning to blur."

Indeed, the relationship between memory, emotion, and stress is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Sternberg’s work. She considers how we deal with the constant swirl of inputs and outputs as we move through the world, barraged by a stream of stimuli and sensations: "Every minute of the day and night we feel thousands of sensations that might trigger a positive emotion such as happiness, or a negative emotion such as sadness, or no emotion at all: a trace of perfume, a light touch, a fleeting shadow, a strain of music. And there are thousands of physiological responses, such as palpitations or sweating, that can equally accompany positive emotions such as love, or negative emotions such as fear, or can happen without any emotional tinge at all. What makes these sensory inputs and physiological outputs emotions is the charge that gets added to them somehow, somewhere in our brains. Emotions in their fullest sense comprise all of these components. Each can lead into the black box and produce an emotional experience, or something in the black box can lead out to an emotional response that seems to come from nowhere."

Memory, it turns out, is one of the major factors mediating the dialogue between sensation and emotional experience. Our memories of past experience become encoded into triggers that act as switchers on the rail of psychoemotional response, directing the incoming train of present experience in the direction of one emotional destination or another.

Sternberg writes: "Mood is not homogeneous like cream soup. It is more like Swiss cheese, filled with holes. The triggers are highly specific, tripped by sudden trails of memory: a faint fragrance, a few bars of a tune, a vague silhouette that tapped into a sad memory buried deep, but not completely erased. These sensory inputs from the moment float through layers of time in the parts of the brain that control memory, and they pull out with them not only reminders of sense but also trails of the emotions that were first connected to the memory. These memories become connected to emotions, which are processed in other parts of the brain: the amygdala for fear, the nucleus accumbens for pleasure - those same parts that the anatomists had named for their shapes. And these emotional brain centers are linked by nerve pathways to the sensory parts of the brain and to the frontal lobe and hippocampus - the coordinating centers of thought and memory."

The same sensory input can trigger a negative emotion or a positive one, depending on the memories associated with it. This is where stress comes in - much like memory mediates how we interpret and respond to various experiences, a complex set of biological and psychological factors determine how we respond to stress. Some types of stress can be stimulating and invigorating, mobilizing us into action and creative potency; others can be draining and incapacitating, leaving us frustrated and hopeless. This dichotomy of good vs. bad stress, Sternberg notes, is determined by the biology undergirding our feelings - by the dose and duration of the stress hormones secreted by the body in response to the stressful stimulus. She explains the neurobiological machinery behind this response:

"As soon as the stressful event occurs, it triggers the release of the cascade of hypothalamic, pituitary, and adrenal hormones - the brain’s stress response. It also triggers the adrenal glands to release epinephrine, or adrenaline, and the sympathetic nerves to squirt out the adrenaline-like chemical norepinephrine all over the body: nerves that wire the heart, and gut, and skin. So, the heart is driven to beat faster, the fine hairs of your skin stand up, you sweat, you may feel nausea or the urge to defecate. But your attention is focused, your vision becomes crystal clear, a surge of power helps you run - these same chemicals released from nerves make blood flow to your muscles, preparing you to sprint.

All this occurs quickly. If you were to measure the stress hormones in your blood or saliva, they would already be increased within three minutes of the event. In experimental psychology tests, playing a fast-paced video game will make salivary cortisol increase and norepinephrine spill over into venous blood almost as soon as the virtual battle begins. But if you prolong the stress, by being unable to control it or by making it too potent or long-lived, and these hormones and chemicals still continue to pump out from nerves and glands, then the same molecules that mobilized you for the short haul now debilitate you."

These effects of stress exist on a bell curve - that is, some is good, but too much becomes bad: As the nervous system secretes more and more stress hormones, performance increases, but up to a point; after that tipping point, performance begins to suffer as the hormones continue to flow. What makes stress “bad” - that is, what makes it render us more pervious to disease - is the disparity between the nervous system and immune system’s respective pace. 

Sternberg explains: "The nervous system and the hormonal stress response react to a stimulus in milliseconds, seconds, or minutes. The immune system takes parts of hours or days. It takes much longer than two minutes for immune cells to mobilize and respond to an invader, so it is unlikely that a single, even powerful, short-lived stress on the order of moments could have much of an effect on immune responses. However, when the stress turns chronic, immune defenses begin to be impaired. As the stressful stimulus hammers on, stress hormones and chemicals continue to pump out. Immune cells floating in this milieu in blood, or passing through the spleen, or growing up in thymic nurseries never have a chance to recover from the unabated rush of cortisol. Since cortisol shuts down immune cells’ responses, shifting them to a muted form, less able to react to foreign triggers, in the context of continued stress we are less able to defend and fight when faced with new invaders. And so, if you are exposed to, say, a flu or common cold virus when you are chronically stressed out, your immune system is less able to react and you become more susceptible to that infection."

Extended exposure to stress, especially to a variety of stressors at the same time - any combination from the vast existential menu of life-events like moving, divorce, a demanding job, the loss of a loved one, and even ongoing childcare - adds up a state of extreme exhaustion that leads to what we call burnout.

Sternberg writes: "Members of certain professions are more prone to burnout than others - nurses and teachers, for example, are among those at highest risk. These professionals are faced daily with caregiving situations in their work lives, often with inadequate pay, inadequate help in their jobs, and with too many patients or students in their charge. Some studies are beginning to show that burnt-out patients may have not only psychological burnout, but also physiological burnout: a flattened cortisol response and inability to respond to any stress with even a slight burst of cortisol. In other words, chronic unrelenting stress can change the stress response itself. And it can change other hormone systems in the body as well."

One of the most profound such changes affects the reproductive system - extended periods of stress can shut down the secretion of reproductive hormones in both men and women, resulting in lower fertility. But the effects are especially perilous for women - recurring and extended episodes of depression result in permanent changes in bone structure, increasing the risk of osteoporosis. In other words, we register stress literally in our bones.

But stress isn’t a direct causal function of the circumstances we’re in - what either amplifies or ameliorates our experience of stress is, once again, memory. Sternberg writes: Our perception of stress, and therefore our response to it, is an ever-changing thing that depends a great deal on the circumstances and settings in which we find ourselves. It depends on previous experience and knowledge, as well as on the actual event that has occurred. And it depends on memory, too.

The most acute manifestation of how memory modulates stress is post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. For striking evidence of how memory encodes past experience into triggers, which then catalyze present experience, Sternberg points to research by psychologist Rachel Yehuda, who found both Holocaust survivors and their first-degree relatives - that is, children and siblings - exhibited a similar hormonal stress response.

This, Sternberg points out, could be a combination of nature and nurture - the survivors, as young parents for whom the trauma was still fresh, may well have subconsciously taught their children a common style of stress-responsiveness; but it’s also possible that these automatic hormonal stress responses permanently changed the parents’ biology and were transmitted via DNA to their children. Once again, memory encodes stress into our very bodies. Sternberg considers the broader implications: "Stress need not be on the order of war, rape, or the Holocaust to trigger at least some elements of PTSD. Common stresses that we all experience can trigger the emotional memory of a stressful circumstance - and all its accompanying physiological responses. Prolonged stress - such as divorce, a hostile workplace, the end of a relationship, or the death of a loved one - can all trigger elements of PTSD."

Among the major stressors - which include life-events expected to be on the list, such as divorce and the death of a loved one - is also one somewhat unexpected situation, at least to those who haven’t undergone it: moving. Sternberg considers the commonalities between something as devastating as death and something as mundane as moving: One is certainly loss - the loss of someone or something familiar. Another is novelty - finding oneself in a new and unfamiliar place because of the loss. Together these amount to change: moving away from something one knows and toward something one doesn’t. An unfamiliar environment is a universal stressor to nearly all species, no matter how developed or undeveloped.

In the remainder of the thoroughly illuminating "The Balance Within", Sternberg goes on to explore the role of interpersonal relationships in both contributing to stress and shielding us from it, how the immune system changes our moods, and what we can do to harness these neurobiological insights in alleviating our experience of the stressors with which every human life is strewn.”
Related:
"Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song 
Reduces Anxiety by Up to 65 Percent"
By Melanie Curtin
Full screen recommended.
"Everyone knows they need to manage their stress. When things get difficult at work, school, or in your personal life, you can use as many tips, tricks, and techniques as you can get to calm your nerves. So here's a science-backed one: make a playlist of the 10 songs found to be the most relaxing on earth. Sound therapies have long been popular as a way of relaxing and restoring one's health. For centuries, indigenous cultures have used music to enhance well-being and improve health conditions.

Now, neuroscientists out of the UK have specified which tunes give you the most bang for your musical buck. The study was conducted on participants who attempted to solve difficult puzzles as quickly as possible while connected to sensors. The puzzles induced a certain level of stress, and participants listened to different songs while researchers measured brain activity as well as physiological states that included heart rate, blood pressure, and rate of breathing.

According to Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson of Mindlab International, which conducted the research, the top song produced a greater state of relaxation than any other music tested to date. In fact, listening to that one song- "Weightless"- resulted in a striking 65 percent reduction in participants' overall anxiety, and a 35 percent reduction in their usual physiological resting rates. That is remarkable.

Equally remarkable is the fact the song was actually constructed to do so. The group that created "Weightless", Marconi Union, did so in collaboration with sound therapists. Its carefully arranged harmonies, rhythms, and bass lines help slow a listener's heart rate, reduce blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

When it comes to lowering anxiety, the stakes couldn't be higher. Stress either exacerbates or increases the risk of health issues like heart disease, obesity, depression, gastrointestinal problems, asthma, and more. More troubling still, a recent paper out of Harvard and Stanford found health issues from job stress alone cause more deaths than diabetes, Alzheimer's, or influenza.

In this age of constant bombardment, the science is clear: if you want your mind and body to last, you've got to prioritize giving them a rest. Music is an easy way to take some of the pressure off of all the pings, dings, apps, tags, texts, emails, appointments, meetings, and deadlines that can easily spike your stress level and leave you feeling drained and anxious.

Of the top track, Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson said, "'Weightless' was so effective, many women became drowsy and I would advise against driving while listening to the song because it could be dangerous." So don't drive while listening to these, but do take advantage of them:

10. "We Can Fly," by Rue du Soleil (Café Del Mar)
8. "Someone Like You," by Adele
7. "Pure Shores," by All Saints
6. "Please Don't Go," by Barcelona
5. "Strawberry Swing," by Coldplay
4. "Watermark," by Enya
2. "Electra," by Airstream
1. "Weightless," by Marconi Union

I made a public playlist of all of them on Spotify that runs about 50 minutes (it's also downloadable)."

The Daily "Near You?"

Indian Lake, New York, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Charles Bukowski, "Darkness Falls"

"Darkness Falls"

"Darkness falls upon Humanity
and faces become terrible things
that wanted more than there was.

All our days are marked with
unexpected affronts -
some disastrous, others less so,
but the process is
wearing and continuous.

Attrition rules.
Most give way,
leaving empty spaces
where people should be.
And now,
as we ready to self-destruct,
there is very little left to kill,
which makes the tragedy
less and more,
much, much more."
- Charles Bukowski

"A Long March Through The Night..."

"The life of Man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent Death. Very brief is the time in which we can help them, in which their happiness or misery is decided. Be it ours to shed sunshine on their path, to lighten their sorrows by the balm of sympathy, to give them the pure joy of a never-tiring affection, to strengthen failing courage, to instill faith in times of despair."
- Bertrand Russell

"Gregory Mannarino, Stansberry Research, PM 7/7/23"

"It's a Big Club and you ain't in it. 
You and I are not in the Big Club.'
- George Carlin
Gregory Mannarino, PM 7/7/23
"More Talk Of Food Shortages, Resource Scarcity. 
Be Ready For Anything"
Comments here:
o
Stansberry Research, PM 7/7/23
"The Fed Needs Inflation to Survive, 
U.S. Is Living on Borrowed Money and Time"
“America is falling. You have a situation [where] we’re living on borrowed money. We’re living on borrowed time,” says Greg Mannarino, founder of traderschoice.net and financial strategist. He paints a bleak picture of the American economy as indicated by the inverted yield curve. Mannarino also expresses skepticism about the authenticity of newly released job data. “It’s not checked by a third party. There’s no bearing on reality. The economy is in free-fall. People are maxed out.” Plus, he warns a new market crash coming because the Federal Reserve “artificially suppressed rates,” reinflating a bubble. “If action is not taken by central banks to keep rates suppressed more than they are now… this market is going down a lot from here.” He also predicts a debt market meltdown, claiming that the Fed has to buy the debt and “create cash out of nothing” to keep targeted interest rates. “A central bank’s power sides in only one thing.. and that is its ability to inflate,” he concludes."
Comments here:

'How It Really Is"

 

Jethro Tull, "Locomotive Breath"

Douglas Macgregor, "The Truth About the Ukraine War"

Douglas Macgregor, 7/7/23
"The Truth About The Ukraine War"
"Russians Have Brought in an Additional 400,000 Reservists"
Comments here:
o
Hindustan Times 7/7/23
"Ukraine Trembles as Putin Places 180,000 Troops 
Near Bakhmut; Kyiv Says 'Pretty Powerful Grouping'”
"Ukraine claimed that Russia has stationed more than 1,80,000 troops on two major Eastern battlefronts. "Kyiv called the Russian build-up a 'pretty powerful grouping'. A Ukrainian official further cited possibilities of Russian offensive actions from the side of Bakhmut. Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar also confirmed frequent clashes near Bakhmut."
Comments here:

"Walmart Is A Complete Nightmare! A Wreck, A Fight, And Massive Price Increases!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 7/7/23
"Walmart Is A Complete Nightmare! 
A Wreck, A Fight, And Massive Price Increases!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Walmart and are noticing that grocery prices are getting unaffordable. This was a complete disaster as we also saw a bad car wreck and a bad fight break out right at the front entrance of Walmart. It's getting rough out here as every grocery store we visit is raising their prices to extreme levels!"
Comments here:
o
"Nine Meals from Anarchy"
by Jeff Thomas

"In 1906, Alfred Henry Lewis stated, “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy.” Since then, his observation has been echoed by people as disparate as Robert Heinlein and Leon Trotsky. The key here is that, unlike all other commodities, food is the one essential that cannot be postponed. If there were a shortage of, say, shoes, we could make do for months or even years. A shortage of gasoline would be worse, but we could survive it, through mass transport or even walking, if necessary.

But food is different. If there were an interruption in the supply of food, fear would set in immediately. And, if the resumption of the food supply were uncertain, the fear would become pronounced. After only nine missed meals, it’s not unlikely that we’d panic and be prepared to commit a crime to acquire food. If we were to see our neighbor with a loaf of bread, and we owned a gun, we might well say, “I’m sorry, you’re a good neighbor and we’ve been friends for years, but my children haven’t eaten today – I have to have that bread – even if I have to shoot you.”

There’s no need to speculate on this concern yet. There’s nothing so alarming on the evening news yet to suggest that such a problem might be on the horizon. So, let’s have a closer look at the actual food distribution industry, compare it to the present direction of the economy, and see whether there might be reason for concern.

The food industry typically operates on very small margins – often below 2%. Traditionally, wholesalers and retailers have relied on a two-week turnaround of supply and anywhere up to a 30-day payment plan. But an increasing tightening of the economic system for the last eight years has resulted in a turnaround time of just three days for both supply and payment for many in the industry. This a system that’s still fully operative, but with no further wiggle room, should it take a significant further hit.

If there were a month where significant inflation took place (The Feds lie say 9.1%; really now at least 17%), all profits would be lost for the month for both suppliers and retailers, but goods could still be replaced and sold for a higher price next month. But, if there were three or more consecutive months of inflation, the industry would be unable to bridge the gap, even if better conditions were expected to develop in future months. A failure to pay in full for several months would mean smaller orders by those who could not pay. That would mean fewer goods on the shelves. The longer the inflationary trend continued, the more quickly prices would rise to hopefully offset the inflation. And ever-fewer items on the shelves.

From Germany in 1922, to Argentina in 2000, and to Venezuela in 2016, this has been the pattern whenever inflation has become systemic, rather than sporadic. Each month, some stores close, beginning with those that are the most poorly capitalized.

In good economic times, this would mean more business for those stores that were still solvent, but in an inflationary situation, they would be in no position to take on more unprofitable business. The result is that the volume of food on offer at retailers would decrease at a pace with the severity of the inflation.

However, the demand for food would not decrease by a single loaf of bread. Store closings would be felt most immediately in inner cities, when one closing would send customers to the next neighborhood seeking food. The real danger would come when that store also closes and both neighborhoods descended on a third store in yet another neighborhood. That’s when one loaf of bread for every three potential purchasers would become worth killing over. Virtually no one would long tolerate seeing his children go without food because others had “invaded” his local supermarket.

In addition to retailers, the entire industry would be impacted and, as retailers disappeared, so would suppliers, and so on, up the food chain. This would not occur in an orderly fashion, or in one specific area. The problem would be a national one. Closures would be all over the map, seemingly at random, affecting all areas. Food riots would take place, first in the inner cities then spread to other communities. Buyers, fearful of shortages, would clean out the shelves.

Importantly, it’s the very unpredictability of food delivery that increases fear, creating panic and violence. And, again, none of the above is speculation; it’s a historical pattern – a reaction based upon human nature whenever systemic inflation occurs.

Then… unfortunately… the cavalry arrives. At that point, it would be very likely that the central government would step in and issue controls to the food industry that served political needs rather than business needs, greatly exacerbating the problem. Suppliers would be ordered to deliver to those neighborhoods where the riots are the worst, even if those retailers are unable to pay. This would increase the number of closings of suppliers.

Along the way, truckers would begin to refuse to enter troubled neighborhoods, and the military might well be brought in to force deliveries to take place. (If truckers could afford $5.75 a gallon diesel fuel.)

So, what would it take for the above to occur? Well, historically, it has always begun with excessive debt. We know that the debt level is now the highest it has ever been in world history. (US debt as of October 2022: $31.12 trillion; World debt as of Feb. 2022: $303 trillion.) In addition, the stock and bond markets are in bubbles of historic proportions. They will most certainly pop.

With a crash in the markets, deflation always follows as people try to unload assets to cover for their losses. The Federal Reserve (and other central banks) has stated that it will unquestionably print as much money as it takes to counter deflation. Unfortunately, inflation has a far greater effect on the price of commodities than assets. Therefore, the prices of commodities will rise dramatically, further squeezing the purchasing power of the consumer, thereby decreasing the likelihood that he will buy assets, even if they’re bargain priced. Therefore, asset holders will drop their prices repeatedly as they become more desperate. The Fed then prints more to counter the deeper deflation and we enter a period when deflation and inflation are increasing concurrently.

Historically, when this point has been reached, no government has ever done the right thing. They have, instead, done the very opposite – keep printing. A by-product of this conundrum is reflected in the photo above. Food still exists, but retailers shut down because they cannot pay for goods. Suppliers shut down because they’re not receiving payments from retailers. Producers cut production because sales are plummeting.

In every country that has passed through such a period, the government has eventually gotten out of the way and the free market has prevailed, re-energizing the industry and creating a return to normal. The question is not whether civilization will come to an end. (It will not.) The question is the liveability of a society that is experiencing a food crisis, as even the best of people are likely to panic and become a potential threat to anyone who is known to store a case of soup in his cellar.

Fear of starvation is fundamentally different from other fears of shortages. Even good people panic. In such times, it’s advantageous to be living in a rural setting, as far from the centre of panic as possible. It’s also advantageous to store food in advance that will last for several months, if necessary. However, even these measures are no guarantee, as, today, modern highways and efficient cars make it easy for anyone to travel quickly to where the goods are. The ideal is to be prepared to sit out the crisis in a country that will be less likely to be impacted by dramatic inflation – where the likelihood of a food crisis is low and basic safety is more assured."

"This Is What Panic Looks Like"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 7/7/23
"This Is What Panic Looks Like"
"People are getting desperate for money. They’re starting to look for different ways to pay bills. People are also looking to borrow against their IRA and 401(k) at a record pace."
Comments here:

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 7/7/23"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up 7/7/23"
Supply Chain Break, War Theft, Economy Update
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"The story that will most affect you is the possible strike by UPS. Why is that? UPS carries about 60% of the nation’s packages, and if this strike happens at the end of July, the supply lines are going to get clogged - really clogged. FedEx, the U.S. Postal Service and other shippers can in no way pick up the slack. If there is something you need, you will have to order it now or possibly wait months. Even if the strike only goes on for a short while, it will cause much longer wait times for just about everything you need. So, get it now to be on the safe side.

I have been covering the Ukraine war since the very first sanction. I predicted the sanctions would backfire, and every one did backfire on NATO and Europe. Why do these folks want to keep on with the war and not have any talk of peace? Journalist Max Blumenthal says it’s all about the money the Uni-party is stealing by keeping the carnage in Ukraine going. Blumenthal gave a stunning presentation at the U.N. last week talking about the $150 billion ripped off from taxpayers so far. He also gives a long list of grifters inside and outside the U.S. government who are cashing in on death. It’s everything you want to know about the Ukraine war in 15 interesting and entertaining minutes. (You can see it or read the transcript here.) The most important point Blumenthal makes is we are temping nuclear war so a few greedy reckless people can make huge amounts of money.

They are telling us the economy is strong, but nothing could be further from the truth. The Fed is straight up telling us that interest rates are going up. That is going to melt down an already deeply troubled commercial real estate market while thumping residential to boot. Meanwhile, credit card use has exploded while rates on that borrowed money are at an all-time high. To add insult to injury, one of the top search terms on Google is “Pawn Shop Near Me.” That can’t be good." There is much more in the 45-minute newscast.

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these 
stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 7/7/23.

Jim Kunstler, "Father of Our Country"

"Father of Our Country"
by Jim Kunstler

“If cocaine is so prevalent in the West Wing that there is somehow ‘extra’ cocaine just laying around, when is the White House going to start drug testing its employees?” 
- Margot Cleveland

"Consider for a moment, and be grateful for, how perfect “Joe Biden” is as president of this foundering republic. He and his family project the rectified essence of every depravity now driving the life of our nation to some murky bottom, where it may be forced to assess its sorry state, repent, and perhaps recover (or just give up and die). There he stands, without ambiguity or conscience: “Joe Biden,” the personification of a failed state.

As a criminal enterprise, for instance, the Biden family influence-peddling operation among foreign powers reflects exactly the racketeering character of corporate America today - which is to say, making money dishonestly, and often for doing nothing. In America’s biggest industry, finance, this is absolutely the case. You may have forgotten what finance is, and what it’s supposed to do: namely, to lend money for activities intended to produce things of value, useful things that people need and want, sometimes even public works that benefit everyone in society.

American Finance now is in the business of receiving free money (loans at minimal interest) from government-chartered central banks (issuing “credit” from nowhere), that banks, hedge funds, private equity outfits, and sundry freebooters can roll into instruments such as interest-yielding bonds (loans back to government) and derivatives (algorithmic bets derived, abstracted from, and tuned to market movements) magically multiplying money that finally produces nothing of value - though it may translate into yacht purchases, alimony payments, luxury suites at ballparks, private Caribbean islands, and traffic in humans for use as sex toys.

The Biden business model also applies nicely to medicine and higher education, two endeavors saturated in prestige and pomp, like the doings in the White House, but which, similarly to that hotbed of policy and action, in the case of medicine, produces shocking amounts of unnecessary death (est. 251,000 a year from iatrogenic treatment errors), and in the case of higher ed, the production of specious and harmful Big Ideas - while both endeavors expand like turbo-tumors within the dying body of an expiring manufacturing economy.

As in the Biden model, dishonesty is now the keystone in both “Meds” and “Eds.” Our public health officialdom hasn’t stopped lying about the Covid-19 episode since it began, and in every aspect from the origin of the disease (if that’s even what it was), to the deaths statistically attributed to it, to everything about the “vaccines” cooked up to stop it. In turn, those officials coerced America’s doctors into withholding the best treatments (ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine) while applying deadly protocols (remdesivir plus intubation) guaranteed to kill hospital patients - which the government then rewarded with gargantuan bonus payments.

Higher ed has now turned its energies from learning to political activism, meaning the performance of morality preening stunts for acquiring status under the pretense of addressing social problems that boil down to bad behavioral choices and mental illness. Higher ed is now in the business of generating more of both those things in the form of manufactured racial antagonism and sexual torment (in partnership with the medical establishment). All fields of study in college are now racialized and genderized, and all at the expense of organized knowledge, which gets burdened with fatuous theory and spurious crypto-religious missions. The price of admission to this carnival of fakery multiplies at a faster rate than the generalized annual dollar inflation, abetted by federal loan guarantees that “Joe Biden,” in his munificence, seeks to abridge with a jubilee for student debt.

Of course, it’s the fantastic psychodrama within the Biden family that presents the most arresting model for America. “Joe Biden” tells us over and over that he loves his son, who he calls “the smartest man I know.” A father’s love is a wonderful thing, for sure. And yet, is there anything that Hunter Biden has not done to destroy “the Big Guy,” short of, say, driving a number nine knitting needle ear-to-ear through the old man’s skull?

Look at what Hunter has loosed on his loving dad: a photo archive of amateur pornography (including sex acts with children), drug crime, and bribery deal memos so vast and clear-cut that a first-year law student could write them up into a federal criminal case and/or a bill of impeachment. Hunter went and got a pole-dancer pregnant and lately tried to weasel out of paying to support the daughter he refused to acknowledge until DNA testing pinned it on him. He only just wriggled out of tax evasion and handgun charges due to his father enlisting the US DOJ as a private protection service, thus befouling the agency and destroying the public’s trust in it. Now Hunter’s suspected of leaving a bag of cocaine in a West Wing cubby, where White House security was sure to find it.

What we’re witnessing is an order of magnitude greater than Greek tragedy: the implacable drive to destroy not just the father, who happens (by the sheerest electoral subterfuge) to be president, but to take down the nation with him. And it’s working. The Biden family is crashing into smoldering wreckage, and so is the USA - as acted out in the sad-sack nation of Ukraine, a festering hub of Biden family moneygrubbing going back more than a decade, now being needlessly sacrificed as part of a massive criminal cover-up, with America’s geopolitical prestige on-the-line.

I know, the complexity of this melodrama is overwhelming. How can one bumbling political idiot wreak so much havoc? It’s a wonder, all right. But it’s all playing-out before us in real time. “Joe Biden” - who (let’s face it) is only partly there - Hunter, brother Jim, and the rest of this sorry clan are all going down. We won’t miss them when they're gone. Everything about them is ignoble, which you can’t exactly say about our country itself. One way or another, they will be thrown overboard, and then we’ll see if we can get this ship righted and under sail again."

Bill Bonner, "How the Rich Live"

Taormina seen from the Greek theater.
"How the Rich Live"
Sex, money, power and the false god of equality...
by Bill Bonner

Taormina, Sicily - "This is how the rich live. We look out over the Ionian Sea…at the yachts…and the sun glistening on the water. We ask the waiter for another ‘macchiato.’ We are beside the pool. Young women wear such skimpy bikinis, we can scarcely believe our eyes. We have to get closer to verify it; we don’t want to pass along misinformation. We’ll come back tomorrow for confirmation.

Our hotel, the San Domenico Palace, sits on a cliff, with a stunning view of the Ionian Sea, looking out towards Calabria in Italy. It was one of the sets for the TV show, The White Lotus. We see why it would be. It is full of rich people in a rich setting seeking to distract themselves by acting like rich people.

It’s nature’s way. People get a lot of money; they must get rid of it somehow. Some buy the latest tech stocks. Some open their own hotels or restaurants. And some are content to take advantage of the amenities at the Four Seasons in Taormina…and cavort with other rich people.

Oscar, Eddie and Audrey: "Here’s what the hotel says about itself: "One of the world’s most legendary hotels, San Domenico Palace invites you to embark on an epic journey into history. With origins dating back to 1374, this classic Dominican convent was expanded in 1896 to become a hotel, featuring a new building designed in liberty style. For more than a century, San Domenico Palace has welcomed the world’s most illustrious guests – from Oscar Wilde and King Edward VIII to Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren."

At breakfast yesterday, we saw no sign of Oscar, Edward or Audrey. Instead, there were people who might have been Mustafa, Rahul or Omar. A young couple sat near us. The man was heavy, unattractive, wearing brightly colored shorts and a tee-shirt. The woman, dark haired, was his opposite. Slender. Pretty. The two seemed bored with each other. He ate his breakfast, ignoring her. She tried to make conversation, but got only a grunt in return. She made a pouty face and turned to her phone. Rich people having fun!
Room with a view.
The Peacock Walk: The most fundamental drive of humans is survival. The next is procreation. This second one is the interesting one; it takes an infinite number of sizes, shapes, and disguises. It is why we have wars, Swiss watches and the San Domenico Palace hotel.

Heads swivel towards wealth or fame. Eyes are easily blinded by the pixie dust of power…and bulge at the swimming pool. But for the sake of Dear Readers, your editor tries to keep his wits about him…recording the human comedy faithfully, rather than acting like one of the comic characters himself. It is a romantic comedy…a ‘rom com,’ as they say in Hollywood. Boy meets girl. Girl rejects boy. Boy goes to Wall Street, makes a pile of money. Boy invites girl for a weekend at the San Domenico Palace. Boy gets girl. Girl later divorces him.; takes half his money…and the family dog.

How boys and girls…or boys and boys…girls who used to boys…boys pretending to be girls…and non-binary people with piercings and green hair…get together is not only the subject of countless movies, it is the sotto voce story of our lives…and all the world’s vanities, power struggles and quests for wealth.

We men need to show ourselves and others that we have the brightest feathers on the peacock walk. We do so in endless iterations, many of them contradictory, senseless, and futile. We play chess to win the game. We wear the latest styles…or dismiss them as fads. We spend our money to show off…or hoard it to show how prudent we are. One man feels superior because he lifts weights. Another knows he has a leg up because he reads books. And yet another does neither – and regards it as an emblem of superiority.

False Gods: It’s why ‘equality’ is a false god. Nobody really wants to be equal…we all want to be superior. We want to stand out. That’s the way the animal kingdom (including us) works…by discriminating, good from bad, better from worse, winners from losers. In the end, we all want to ‘get the girl’ (the prize…the recognition…the love…the money). All of it, from the most petty insult to the conquest of Gaulle, is rooted in the fertile soil of sex.

At least, that is our view, which we share (perhaps) with Lucretius and Epicurus. The desire to be better…superior…Numero Uno...is the motor force of progress…the real success secret of the human race. We innovate to impress; we impress to reproduce. Even monks, who live in a cloister, and have taken a vow of chastity, do so because it makes them feel better about themselves, (so they would be better mates…if they were into that sort of thing.)

In the world of money, some make it by inventing new computer chips. Others take it from them by producing fine wines and building elegant hotels. This insight, if it is one, has little practical application. But at least it gives us a hard surface from which to launch our ruminations.

Note that this view emphasizes the relative nature of wealth. While some people innovate to get ahead…others get ahead by trying to force others behind. Even the campaign for ‘equality’ is just another way for some people to feel better about themselves. First, they feel superior simply because they have fashionable opinions – showing the proper concern for the poor. Second, wealth equality can only be achieved by leveling down…reducing the wealth of the rich and thereby making the non-rich relatively richer. This helps us understand why so much of politics seems so stupid; the real goal of it is not to increase human progress, happiness or wealth, but to take it away from some (those who create it) and give it to others (those favored by the elite who control the government).

The math is easy to understand. You and your neighbor each have $100. If you earn another 50 dollars, you’re $50…or a third…richer than he is. If he could prevent you from earning more money, he would remain – relatively – rich. And if he could take away $50 from you, you’d have only $50 left, while he’d have $150 – three times richer! He can go to the San Domenico Palace…you’ll have to stay at home."

Thursday, July 6, 2023

Musical Interlude: Ludovico Einaudi, "The Royal Albert Hall Concert"

Full screen recommended.
Ludovico Einaudi, "The Royal Albert Hall Concert"

"Nuclear PSA Alert! Consulates Close; The Only Plan Left is This; 500,000 Mobilizing"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 7/6/23
"Nuclear PSA Alert! Consulates Close; 
The Only Plan Left is This; 500,000 Mobilizing"
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Context...
"Douglas Macgregor: Devastating Strike!"
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"There are a multitude of fuses affixed to dozens of powder-kegs and little kids with matches are on the loose. I don’t know which of the fuses will be lit and which powder-keg will blow, but someone is bound to do something stupid, and then all hell will break loose. It could happen at any time. One military miscue. One assassination. One violent act that stirs the world. And the dominoes will topple, setting off fireworks not seen on this planet since 1939 – 1945. I can see it all very clearly." - Jim Quinn

"Disney Is In Deep, Deep Trouble As Major Losses Threaten To Collapse Its Retail Business"

Full screen recommended.
"Disney Is In Deep, Deep Trouble As Major Losses 
Threaten To Collapse Its Retail Business"
By Epic Economist

"Disney is in financial distress as its latest movie releases result in billionaire losses while its retail footprint continues to shrink, its streaming service underperforms, and its Florida amusement parks face political battles with state government Ron DeSantis. The company’s poor financial results are worrying Wall Street and sending shares into a free fall at a time when bankruptcies in the entertainment sector continue to rise. Experts say CEO Bob Iger has a huge problem on his hands, and in today’s video, we break down the troubles facing the House of Mouse.

A new analysis by Valliant Renegate estimates that the Walt Disney Company is looking at a $900 million loss following the fiasco of its latest releases. The last eight studio movies put out by the entertainment giant had a very weak performance compared to executives' expectations.

CEO Bob Iger has been facing increasing pressure due to the mounting losses, but he has also been dealing with a political battle against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is trying to take over Disney World's theme park district. The conflict between DeSantis and Disney started in 2022 after the entertainment enterprise, in the face of rising backlash, publicly opposed legislation concerning a bill that banned schools from teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity for the state’s students.

In retaliation, DeSantis took over Disney World's governing district through legislation passed by lawmakers and established a new board of supervisors. But the truth is that Disney’s amusement park problems in Florida are small in comparison to the issues facing its online and brick-and-mortar retail operations.

The company’s streaming media business is going from bad to worse this year. According to data shared by Reuters, “Walt Disney Co faced streaming losses by $400 million in the prior quarter and also shed subscribers in Q1 2023.” Overall, the entertainment corporation lost $659 million just on its streaming segment. Subscriptions dropped to 157.8 million from 161.8 million. In total, the company is seeing a loss of over $1.5 billion. Additionally, Iger announced that two dozen physical locations in America will be eliminated before the end of 2023.

Wall Street is extremely worried about the headwinds faced by Disney, and investors punished the company for its latest earnings report. Amid multiple controversies and shakeups, The Walt Disney Company’s stock price is nowhere near where it once was, losing 117% of its value since 2021. Since the beginning of the year, shares plunged by almost 20%. Financial experts say that the selloff was fueled by uncertainty over Iger’s takeover of the company.

So far, the new CEO has not turned the company around. His, so far, has not been successful. Instead, he laid off 7,000 workers in a cost-cutting move. The cuts come as he tries to slash $5.5 billion in costs to keep the business afloat. The outlook is truly concerning, especially amid a trend of billionaire bankruptcies in the entertainment industry. This year alone, Vice Media, Regal Cinemas, which owns CineWorld and National CineMedia filed for bankruptcy due to a massive drop in revenue and loss of profitability. The environment is getting more hostile for US businesses as Americans continue to struggle financially. The future of Disney is on the line, and now more than ever, executives must step up their game to save the legacy of Walt Disney."
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"Americans Are Panic Selling To Pawn Shops"; Financing Your Wannabe Millionaire Lifestyle"

Jeremiah Babe, 7/6/23
"Americans Are Panic Selling To Pawn Shops"; 
Financing Your Wannabe Millionaire Lifestyle"
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Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Along the High Ridges"

Deuter, "Along the High Ridges"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Planetary nebula Abell 78 stands out in this colorful telescopic skyscape. In fact the colors of the spiky Milky Way stars depend on their surface temperatures, both cooler (yellowish) and hotter (bluish) than the Sun. But Abell 78 shines by the characteristic emission of ionized atoms in the tenuous shroud of material shrugged off from an intensely hot central star. The atoms are ionized, their electrons stripped away, by the central star's energetic but otherwise invisible ultraviolet light.
The visible blue-green glow of loops and filaments in the nebula's central region corresponds to emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms, surrounded by strong red emission from electrons recombining with hydrogen atoms. Some 5,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Cygnus, Abell 78 is about three light-years across. A planetary nebula like Abell 78 represents a very brief final phase in stellar evolution that our own Sun will experience... in about 5 billion years.”

Chet Raymo, "Why We Need Poets"

"Why We Need Poets"
by Chet Raymo

"The poet Jane Hirshfield referred in a poem to the number of atoms it takes to make a butterfly. Ten to the 24th power, I think she said. I thought I'd check it out. A typical butterfly might weigh about half a gram. The exact ratio of elements I don't know, but mostly hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. Let's assume an atomic weight of ten for a typical atom; that is, an atom with ten nuclear particles (Hydrogen=1, carbon= 12, oxygen=16, and so on). A proton or neutron has a weight of about 1.6 X 10-24 grams. About 3 X 1022 atoms in a butterfly.

If I'm remembering Hirshfield's reference correctly (and I may not be), we are off by one or two orders of magnitude. No matter. It's a very big number. You want to make a butterfly? You will need 30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms. And every one in exactly the right place.

Now consider the miracle of metamorphosis. The caterpillar builds a chrysalis. Wraps itself up in its closet. And there, in the privacy of its self-sufficiency, it rearranges those arrangements of atoms. The caterpillar's six stumpy front feet are turned into the butterfly's slender legs. Four wings develop, as do reproductive organs. Chewing mouthparts become adapted for sucking. A crawling, insatiable, leaf-eater is transformed into a winged, sex-obsessed nectar sipper.

This is why we need poets. It's one thing to count atoms, or draw diagrams of the 22 amino acids, or suss out their sequence on the long chains that are the proteins. Or read out the genome that controls the machinery that turns a creeping leaf-cruncher into a winged angel. But all that biochemistry, as wonderful as it is, leaves the essential mystery intact. The hum. The unceasing hum that is life. The inextinguishable continuity. Sing, poets. Sing your hosannas."

The Poet: Dylan Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"

"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"

"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
- Dylan Thomas